We have a long driveway past the back of the house to the garage. I pay a guy with truck and blade who just pushes it up to the garage doors - I don't need access to it. It makes a difference not needing car access, although it's good to be able to unload groceries from a taxi on the drive rather than the street.

But thanks to our Mr Plow we can do that. Occasionally we might need to make a pathway of a few yards to get to the street pending his arrival later.

Some of the region saw some pretty hefty wind storm today, and lots of power outages, was looking at the map and some areas have been without power 5+ hours. BC Ferries had to cancel sailings and Harbor Air cancelled a fair amount of their flights today, making it near impossible to get to/from Vancouver Island.

Even had a pier destroyed.

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4955108

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-s-powerful-wind-storm-in-pictures-1.4955342

My friend who moved out to the island this year phoned me yesterday as we were coming back from fishing, and he said they were taking quite a pasting in Duncan. 300,000 without power is a big deal.

Looks like they have gotten some power back on, currently hydro website shows 142,000 without power, but does say some areas could go a couple of days before power is restored.

There have been some postings on my aquarium group for BC, several people lost all their fish due to power being out and backup battery packs running out, some over 24 hours without power.

It wasn't too windy in East Vancouver, never would have known there was a windstorm by just looking out the window or going outside.

End of the article has a video of the Bowen Island ferry from Thursday, wild ride from the looks.

5 min mark onward.

https://www.bowenislandundercurrent....oon-1.23552214

Not even a single snow flake has landed at my place this season.

The warmer rainy weather is now cold rainy weather. Hovering around 38 to 42F.

Still too warm for snow.

It's becoming unpleasant here and not even cold yet, but it's coming; a return to seasonal temperatures.

Massive thaw over the last 24 hours. Sidewalks clear, deck clear, all the grass visible at the front and half at the back. Most of the snow that's still here is where it's been piled up during plowing/digging and too thick to have melted.

No snow forecast until a couple of inches on Friday so we'll probably have the 3rd or 4th green xmas in the last few years.

He wasn't fishing; I was fishing with my friends, and yes, we did ok. We let the big ones go and still came home with a nice mixed bag of perch, walleye, and one pike which I have pickled and which will be ready in a couple of weeks.

This winter is warm. Here it is Christmas Day at 1am and windows wide open, haven't had to touch the heat once.